Chapter 9 Getting used to Contracts

Helga blushed and stammered a bit after realizing what she said.

"I uhmm... *cough* forget I said anything, I didn't mean to say that."

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow, at a loss for words.

"Quite." Was all I could say. Clearing my throat, I walked back to the helm and settled in for the voyage.

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We stopped by a concealed pirate cove Helga knew about on an uninhabited island. There wasn't a name for the Island due to people wanting to keep as quiet about the place as possible.

I couldn't go there with Queen yet due to no one knowing about it. I didn't want too many people to know that she could sail by herself but when I got a crew they could sail her and even if they found out she could move they wouldn't know that she can operate even without them.

All I need now is a skeleton crew and I can much more confidently move about. Even if I come across other people or ships on the seas, I wouldn't need to hide or be put in hard to explain situations.

So used a jolly boat from the passenger ship and kept Queen hidden behind the island where it couldn't be seen by too many people.

After a lot of rowing, we finally made land on the pier. We did get a few weird looks due to coming in with just a boat and having no ship on the horizon.

Helga pat my back and gently pulled my arm sleeve.

"Come on, follow me. The tavern in this place has the second-best drinks on these islands."

We talked while we walked.

"Where is the first best place?"

"The Golden Bay is big so there's more than one tavern but only one of them has the best drinks on the whole archipelago but we'll talk about that when we get there. For now though? Welcome to the Empty Tankard."

She presented with open arms. It looked like just any place from the outside but when we walked in quite a bit of people were drinking and having fun. The place was rowdy but just added to the charm.

We walked up to the bar and sat down. The bartender came around to take our orders.

"What'll it be?"

Helga asked for whiskey and I asked for rum.

"Sorry, no rum."

That got my attention.

"No rum? What do you mean, no rum? What kind of island settlement doesn't have rum?"

"This isn't an official settlement. Most of our stock comes from smugglers or plundered booty mate, and the guys who did the rum-running for this little hole got caught by the Theocracy. Their ship got scuttled, captain and crew were hanged to be sun-dried."

"Yes but why is the rum gone?" One thing I wanted to try drinking and it's gone? The bartender shrugged and I just accepted my situation. Fuck my luck. "Fine, fine get me whiskey as well."

We got our drinks and I took a swig. Its taste was... eh, I wasn't much of a drinker in my past life so I wouldn't know what makes a good drink anyway.

As we agreed I just stood there and had my drink while Helga went to gather up a crew.

Queen was one of those big warships. She was by the standards of my world worthy of being a flagship for an admiral and her nature as a Devil Fruit controlled ship made her capable of going faster than she should be able to.

That meant the maximum crew capacity for the Queen was around 1000 people. Although that would make things a bit too crowded and difficult to upkeep. I was hoping for around 400 to 500 maximum for crew members.

This wasn't a Disney movie so there wasn't just a small number of recognisable crew members getting up to hijinks.

Some ships were just that big. Anyway, I finished my drink and paid for it with the coins we got from the passengers.

We got quite a lot and would get quite a bit more when we sold all the extra cargo we stole. The crew would need paying.

I went out of the tavern and walked around the small settlement. There wasn't much but there were the essentials for ship maintenance and supplies.

Something caught my eye. A man with a small cage next to him. The cage had a sign in front of it that said 'for sale'. A parrot was inside. A Macaw I believe and it was primarily purple instead of red and had two big wings and two smaller ones under them that became easier to see when it spread its wings.

"How much for it?"

"Two gold."

"For a fucking bird? One gold."

"Aye, but this one is female sir. It can lay eggs for more."

"One gold and three silver pieces, final offer. I'm only interested in the bird mate, I don't need it."

The man contemplated for a bit and finally sold it to me and quickly left like his life depended on it. Likely there was something about the bird that if I knew would make me not want to buy it.

"Hey birdie, I think I'll name you... Coco. Alright, Coco, I want to own your whole existence. If you agree to this touch my finger."

This was something I wanted to experiment with. Since a bird wouldn't even understand terms. Even if a parrot can imitate words most of them would have trouble associating those words with concepts. Coco wouldn't even know what owning means. But, what if it doesn't need to understand?

I opened the door of the cage and extended my finger to Coco but didn't touch it and waited for her to make a move.

Coco slowly reached for my hand and touched it with its beak trying to see if there was food most likely.

Coco made contact with my hand.

I felt the Contract activating. I smiled.

"Welcome to the crew Coco."